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Home Page of Professor Lee R. Berger The Mystery of Our Human Story Lee Berger: Paleoanthropologist March 30, 2017 | 11:15am | Suggested grades: 5‐12 It is no exaggeration to say that paleoanthropologist Lee Berger’s 2013 discovery of Homo naledi signaled a profound shift in our understanding of human evolution. In a secret chamber of the remote Rising Star cave system near Johannesburg, South Africa, a massive collection of bones was discovered by his explorers assisted by recreational cavers. He rapidly assembled a team of “underground astronauts” with caving experience, scientific backgrounds, and the kind of physique that could fit in a chute averaging 7.9 inches in width. Their headline‐making discovery suggested something Home page of Professor Lee R. Berger unprecedented – and that was just the beginning. http://profleeberger.com/ Gladysvale, South Africa: http://profleeberger.com/Gladysvale1.html While a graduate student, this 1991 re‐discovery of hominin fossils at Gladysvale let to a greater understanding of methods of scientific excavation that best work in South Africa. Website includes a 3D reconstruction of the underground cave, photos and publications. Arizona State University – Ask An Anthropologist https://askananthropologist.asu.edu/famous‐anthropology‐finds Educator page – activities, teachers toolbox, quizzes, stories, vocab list, ask a question. Sortable. https://askananthropologist.asu.edu/activities Arizona State University – Institute of Human Origins https://iho.asu.edu/about Includes Lucy’s Story. Articles about Lee Berger Digging for Glory – 6/27/2016 article from The New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/06/27/lee‐berger‐digs‐for‐bones‐and‐glory Lee Berger has announced one fossil find after another, and has proclaimed two new species of ancestral human. Do the bones live up to the hype? By Paige Williams New human species discovered http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/09/new‐human‐species‐discovered 9/10/2015 – Article from Science by Ann Gibbons Includes diagram of the Rising Star cave. Videos Lee Berger: “Google Earth and Human Evolution” | Talks at Google https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHpEmD‐95CQ Published on Nov 22, 2012 “In 2008, Professor Lee Berger--with the help of his curious 9-year-old son--discovered two remarkably well preserved, two-million-year-old fossils of an adult female and young male, known as Australopithecus sediba; a previously unknown species of ape-like creatures that may have been a direct ancestor of modern humans. This discovery of has been hailed as one of the most important archaeological discoveries in history. The fossils reveal what may be one of humankind's oldest ancestors.” (first paragraph) Into the Underworld – National Geographic Explorers Symposium 2016 http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/160617-explorers-week-into-underworld-panel Meet four fascinating “underground” scientists Lee Berger, Paleoanthropologist, Explorer-in-Residence Marina Elliott, Biological Anthropologist, 2016 Emerging Explorer Guillermo de Anda, Underwater Archaeologist, 2012 Emerging Explorer Genevieve von Petzinger, Paleoanthropologist, 2016 Emerging Explorer This panel was part of National Geographic's 2016 Explorers Week, an annual event at which some of the world’s most innovative explorers and scientists come together at National Geographic headquarters. Learn more about Explorers Week at NatGeo.org/explore. (about an hour and a half. Berger is the first speaker. First Look Inside a Fossil Cave http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/berger-cavers-vin Go inside the cave system where researchers have been working to retrieve ancient hominid bones. Steve Tucker and Rick Hunter are the cavers who spotted the remains initially. The two friends were out exploring for fun a few weeks ago, when they squeezed down a 20-meter vertical crack and saw bones— the kinds of fossils local paleoanthropologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Lee Berger had asked their caving club to keep an eye out for. .
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  • Remains of a Barn Owl (Tyto Alba) from the Dinaledi Chamber, Rising
    Research Article Page 1 of 5 Remains of a barn owl (Tyto alba) from the AUTHORS: Dinaledi Chamber, Rising Star Cave, South Africa Ashley Kruger1 Shaw Badenhorst1 AFFILIATION: 1Evolutionary Studies Institute, Excavations during November 2013 in the Rising Star Cave, South Africa, yielded more than 1550 University of the Witwatersrand, specimens of a new hominin, Homo naledi. Four bird bones were collected from the surface of the Johannesburg, South Africa Dinaledi Chamber during the first phase of the initial excavations. Although mentioned in the initial geological and taphonomic reports, the bird remains have not been formally identified and described CORRESPONDENCE TO: Ashley Kruger until now. Here we identify these remains as the extant barn owl (Tyto alba) which is today common in the region and which is considered to have been an important agent of accumulation of microfaunal EMAIL: remains at many local Plio-Pleistocene sites in the Cradle of Humankind. Based on the greatest length [email protected] measurement and breadth of the proximal articulation of the tarsometatarsus specimen, it is suggested that a single (female) individual is represented, despite the small sample sizes available for comparison. DATES: Although it is unclear how the remains of this female owl came to be accumulated in the remote Dinaledi Received: 06 June 2018 Chamber, we suggest several possible taphonomic scenarios and hypothesise that these remains are Revised: 27 July 2018 not directly associated with the Homo naledi remains. Accepted: 13 Sep. 2018 Published: 27 Nov. 2018 Significance: • Owl bones from the Dinaledi Chamber are the only other macro-vertebrate remains from this Chamber.
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  • 1St Uj Palaeo-Research Symposium
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  • Geological and Taphonomic Context for the New Hominin Species Homo Naledi from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa
    Zurich Open Repository and Archive University of Zurich Main Library Strickhofstrasse 39 CH-8057 Zurich www.zora.uzh.ch Year: 2015 Geological and taphonomic context for the new hominin species Homo naledi from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa Dirks, Paul HGM; Berger, Lee R; Roberts, Eric M; Kramers, Jan D; Hawks, John; Randolph-Quinney, Patrick S; Elliott, Marina; Musiba, Charles M; Churchill, Steven E; de Ruiter, Darryl J; Schmid, Peter; Backwell, Lucinda R; Belyanin, Georgy A; Boshoff, Pedro; Hunter, K Lindsay; Feuerriegel, Elen M; Gurtov, Alia; Harrison, James du G; Hunter, Rick; Kruger, Ashley; Morris, Hannah; Makhubela, Tebogo V; Peixotto, Becca; Tucker, Steven Abstract: We describe the physical context of the Dinaledi Chamber within the Rising Star cave, South Africa, which contains the fossils of Homo naledi. Approximately 1550 specimens of hominin remains have been recovered from at least 15 individuals, representing a small portion of the total fossil content. Macro-vertebrate fossils are exclusively H. naledi, and occur within clay-rich sediments derived from in situ weathering, and exogenous clay and silt, which entered the chamber through fractures that prevented passage of coarser-grained material. The chamber was always in the dark zone, and not accessible to non-hominins. Bone taphonomy indicates that hominin individuals reached the chamber complete, with disarticulation occurring during/after deposition. Hominins accumulated over time as older laminated mudstone units and sediment along the cave floor were eroded. Preliminary
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  • Homo Naledi Model Specimens
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